[efarmer]

Pumped hydroelectric storage yields about 70% to 80% of input energy back, which is decent. The turbine that reclaims the power from the gravity potential does so by reducing it's head pressure of course by taking power out of the water column, hence cascading more turbines in the flow path can be difficult by robbing the power required to insure sufficient flow and adding pumps to restore flow requires more power and it becomes a zero sum game quickly. This is why pumped hydorelectric with electrical grid sharing of surplus energy has won the game so far.

[evilgenius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('efarmer', 'P')umped hydroelectric storage yields about 70% to 80% of input energy back, which is decent. The turbine that reclaims the power from the gravity potential does so by reducing it's head pressure of course by taking power out of the water column, hence cascading more turbines in the flow path can be difficult by robbing the power required to insure sufficient flow and adding pumps to restore flow requires more power and it becomes a zero sum game quickly. This is why pumped hydorelectric with electrical grid sharing of surplus energy has won the game so far.

[Newfie]

Some years ago Scientific American had a cover piece on how to fix our energy problem. Mint had three elements.
1-Replace our piecemeal grid with a HVDC grid.
2-Solar and wind farms in the SW to generate power for that fpgrid.
3-Use excess energy from farms to pump high pressure air into natural gas vaults. Then extract said air/nt mix during peak periods burning that mix in base load turbines.

Mad sense to me.

[Shaved Monkey]

Im hoping for higher interest rates to give me more money to spend
Deflation to give me more buying power.
Low oil prices and a high $AUD so I can do a few more trips OS before TSHTF.
Good regular rainfall so I can grow more fruit and veg so I dont need to buy any would be good too

[evilgenius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('efarmer', 'P')umped hydroelectric storage yields about 70% to 80% of input energy back, which is decent. The turbine that reclaims the power from the gravity potential does so by reducing it's head pressure of course by taking power out of the water column, hence cascading more turbines in the flow path can be difficult by robbing the power required to insure sufficient flow and adding pumps to restore flow requires more power and it becomes a zero sum game quickly. This is why pumped hydorelectric with electrical grid sharing of surplus energy has won the game so far.

[Zarquon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', '
')Now jump to global terrorist. We have more then enough capability to hunt them down in their strong holds. That might involve violating the sovereign rights of the host counteries. Might enflame more local antyi-American sentimeng. Might alienate major players like the KSA. But the point is we already have the weaponry we need. What's missing is the will to do so.

Bottom line: the US already has the armed military today to conduct any of those ops. But if we lack the will to pursue some or all of those options today then more expensive weapon systems won't change the dynamics.

[ROCKMAN]

Z - " Didn't work in Vietnam". Of course it didn't work. You missed the point: it didn't work because we didn't put boots on the ground in the north and kill every NVA that didn't surrender. It didn't work because we didn't bomb the shit out of every Chinese supply column coming in. Same plan would have worked for the Russians in Afghanistan.

Just as the same approach worked during WWII in Germany and Japan. All it takes is a commitment to spend as much $''s as needed and to accept the casualties on your side, right? Which is back to my original point: that plan cannot work if the govt doesn't have full public support. Support we didn't have in Vietnam. And the same support we didn't have in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Support the US govt lacks for any serious involvement in the Middle East.